Firewall - By Henning Mankell & Ebba Segerberg Page 0,38

read 7°C. There was a soft wind and some clouds, but no rain. Wallander watched an old man walking slowly down the street. He stopped by a rubbish bin and leafed through its contents with one hand but, apparently, found nothing. Wallander thought back to his visit to Widén. All trace of envy was gone. It had been replaced by a vague melancholy. Widén was going to disappear from his life. Who was left who connected him to his earlier life? Soon there would be no-one.

Wallander forced himself to halt this train of thought and left the flat. On his way to the station he thought about what he should say in his speech. A patrol car pulled up alongside him and the officer asked him if he wanted a lift. Wallander thanked him but declined the offer. He wanted to walk.

A man was waiting for him in reception. When Wallander walked past the man turned to face him. Wallander recognised the face but could not place it.

"Kurt Wallander," the man said, "do you have a minute?"

"That depends. Who are you?"

"Harald Törngren." Wallander shook his head. "I was the one who took the picture."

Wallander remembered the man's face from the press conference.

"You mean, you were the one skulking around the corridor."

Törngren smiled. He was in his thirties, had a long face and short hair.

"I was looking for the toilet and no-one stopped me."

"What do you want?"

"I thought you might like to comment on the picture. I'd like to interview you."

"You'd never write what I say."

"How do you know that?"

Wallander thought about asking Törngren to leave. But he saw an opportunity and decided to take it. "I want a third party present," he said.

Törngren kept smiling. "A witness to the interview?"

"I've had bad experiences with reporters."

"As far as I'm concerned, you're welcome to ten witnesses."

Wallander looked at his watch. It was 7.25 a.m.

"I'll give you half an hour."

"When?"

"Right now."

Irene said that Martinsson was in already. Wallander told Törngren to wait. Martinsson was doing something on his computer. Wallander explained the situation.

Martinsson seemed to hesitate. "As long as you don't flare up."

"Do I usually say things I don't mean?" Wallander said.

"It happens." Martinsson was right.

"I'll keep it in mind. Come on."

They sat down in one of the smaller conference rooms. Törngren put his tape recorder on the table. Martinsson kept himself in the background.

"I spoke to Eva Persson's mother last night," Törngren said. "They have decided to press charges against you."

"For what?"

"For assault. Do you have a reaction to that?"

"There was never any question of assault."

"That's not what they say. And I have a picture of what happened."

"Do you want to know what happened?"

"I'd be glad to hear your version."

"It's not a version. It's the truth."

"It's their word against yours, you know."

Wallander was starting to realise the impossibility of what he was trying to do and regretted agreeing to the interview, but it was too late now. He told him what happened: Persson had attacked her mother and Wallander had tried to separate them. The girl had been wild. He had slapped her.

"Both the mother and the girl deny this."

"Nonetheless, it's what happened."

"Do you really expect me to believe that she started hitting her mother?"

"The girl had just confessed to murder. It was a tense moment. At such times unexpected things can happen."

"Eva Persson told me last night that she had been forced to confess."

Wallander and Martinsson looked at each other. "Forced?"

"That's what I said."

"And who forced her to do this?"

"The officers who interrogated her."

Martinsson was upset. "That's the damnedest thing I ever heard," he said. "We most certainly do not coerce anyone during our interrogations."

"I'm just repeating what she said. She now denies everything. She says she's innocent."

Wallander looked hard at Martinsson who didn't say anything else. Wallander felt completely calm.

"The pre-investigation is far from complete," he said. "Persson is tied to the crime and if she has decided to retract her confession that doesn't change anything at this point."

"You're saying she's lying."

"I am not going to answer that."

"Why not?"

"Because to do so I would need to give you information about an ongoing investigation. Information that is still classified."

"But are you saying that she's lying?"

"Those are your words. I can only tell you what happened."

Wallander could see the headlines, but he knew what he was doing was right. Persson and her mother were cunning, but it wasn't going to help them in the long run, nor would exaggerated and emotional newspaper coverage.

"The girl is very young," Törngren said. "She claims she